Skip to content

Monthly Archives: March 2009

Sound test

Hammer blow: about three-quarters of a second of reverberation Whistling test The drywaller finished this morning. As soon as he was gone, I took the iMac down to the house and, using the Audacity recording program, did some quick acoustic tests. A hammer blow gives about three-quarters of a second of reverberation — not bad. […]

House update

I planted 55 pounds of daffodils last fall. I scattered them in little clumps all around, front and back. They bloomed late, but they did well. While the drywall crew is working, I’ve tried to catch up on some of my outdoor work, including hauling in some compost, planting more grass and clover, feeding and […]

Irish bread

All winter I’ve continued my experiments with bread pones. Though the method I use is like making biscuits, still I think the bread is more like Irish bread than anything else. Irish bread is a quick bread. It’s always brown (at least, all the Irish bread I’ve ever seen is brown). Irish bread can be […]

The risks of eating meat

Whether meat is good for you has been debated for decades. Now we have a new study, a huge study which included 500,000 adults, and the verdict is clear: Meat is very bad for you if you eat it every day. Eating meat every day increases the chance of early death (from heart disease or […]

Grass

archidave I suspect my neighbors think I’m kidding when I say that I’m not going to mow my grass. It’s not just that I don’t want to spend the time, maintain the machines, or burn the gasoline. It’s also that I don’t want the manicured suburban look. In the above photo, gleaned off the internet, […]

Drywall delivery

Of all the scary processes that have gone into building this house, I believe this is the scariest. The drywall for the second floor is brought up by a crane, through a dormer window. The drywall contractor arrived shortly after the delivery truck. Once the drywall is all inside, the walls will start going up.

Insulation = cozy

The house’s internal systems are coming together fast. The wiring, plumbing, and heating/air conditioning ductwork are in the walls and inspected. Today, the insulation was put in. All of a sudden, the house is snug and warm. I couldn’t resist sitting by the fire for a while tonight. The insulation inspection should happen tomorrow. On […]

Obsessing about water

It goes without saying that sustainable living is not, um, sustainable without water. Farmers obsess about the weather, as well they should. Their livelihood depends upon the weather. Here in the Southeast, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge, we’ve been in a drought. There is no shortage of surface water at present. We’ve had […]

Scenic Stokes

Californians, note: Those are tobacco barns.Winston-Salem Journal The Winston-Salem Journal has a story this morning on plans to expand the Hanging Rock Scenic Byway in Stokes County. The expansion would connect the tiny town of Danbury to the scenic loop. Fifty years ago, parts of neighboring Forsyth County were scenic, with fields and barns and […]

A booger from the woods comes to get Lily

Lily, who is about nine months old now, has played outside and practiced her tree-climbing since she was a kitten. Her practice paid off this morning. A dog got her up a tree. I heard barking and ran outside with the broom. A nondescript dog I’d never seen before was bouncing around the tree, and […]